UPDATE - CHILDREN OF 1984 AND AN IDEA

My little sister. Kamal, sent me a link today which I followed and I must share with you. It starts out:

"They were in their mothers stomach, just delivered, toddlers or school going children in 1984 when their fathers, uncles or siblings were butchered in the anti-sikh riots in Delhi which left almost 3000 sikhs dead. These children were suddenly wrenched out from their cosy family life and hurled into the world of neglect, apathy and abuse. They grew up in the shadow of the riots, struggling between going to school and making a living. Their fathers were killed and their mothers either remarried or were so busy working to eek out a living that the kids were virtually forgotten. 25 years on they have grown up into young men. Some wayward due to the neglect , others unemployed due to lack education, and yet few others transformed their lives by sheer grit and determination. These are their stories."

"Sheer grit and determination" I interpret to be that great Sikh virtue of chardi kala, which means, among other things, we never give up, no matter what!

This is the introduction to an incredible collection of pictures and the stories that go with them. These are photographs by Sanjay Austa, a professional photographer. PLEASE go check out From Children To Adults-1984 Anti-Sikh Riot Victims. I know I ask a lot of my readers, from keeping kesh to signing petitions. Here is one more action I ask of you. It won't be painless, but it will be worthwhile.

I'll have a picture here, if I can get the photographer's permission.)
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After looking at all these pictures and reading their brief histories, do you feel the need to do SOMETHING? I have a suggestion. Please take this idea to your gurudwara, wherever you are in the world.

A long time ago, I tried to get a programme going in India, invite one of the widows and her kids to join your household as an honoured family member. In India, even Sikhs don't like widows in close proximity. Not even the widows of our beloved, honoured shaheeds.

But why can't our gurudwaras do that from wherever we happen to be? Someone over there would have to find individual survivors and then they could be helped in whatever way is necessary on a one-to-one basis.

I think that kind of personal touch would help a lot. "Somebody really cares about me, as an individual, as a human being." Remember, these women feel unloved, unwanted, unappreciated...We here complain about that, but our situation is heavenly compared to them. So I suggest personal visits, if possible. When we visit Punjab, take detour to Delhi and go meet the families.

There were maybe about 10,000 Sikh heads of household killed...(I don't believe the smaller numbers)..With more than 20,000,000 Sikhs - about 4-5,000,000 families, certainly we can take care of our own. The Sikh establishment, namely the SGPC, has dropped the ball. I suggest thast we ordinary, everyday Sikhs pick up the ball and run with it.

KIVEN BHULAAN - A VIDEO

THE DIRECTORS

I do not want to say too much about this entry made by Japman Kaur, age 12 and Triman Singh of Windsor, Ontario, Canada. I'll just say that their Gian Kaur is expressing openly the feelings that I keep unexpressed, close to my heart for 25 years.

Please go vote for this video at:

http://www.sikhnet.com/filmfestival/2009/kivein-bhullaan-how-do-we-forget/

It's worth the trip!

Where Ever It Is Dark - An Illustrated Poem

I came across this poem one day while reading Preeti Kaur ji's blog, The World I Stitch. As I read, I saw pictures of all that our children go through in school, especially in America and I felt the need to illustrate her painfully beautiful poem. She has graciously given me permission to reproduce the poem here. The words are hers; I am to blame for the pictures. (She approves of them, though!)

I would suggest that any children experiencing such problems, go to Khalsa Kids. There is a lot of help there. Parents are welcome, too, of course!

where ever it is dark-- poem for sikh children- REVISED

where ever it is dark (revised, kid-friendly version) 12/7/07
for r. singh (especially) and children everywhere

after school
i tell my mummy
i don't want to go back
tomorrow

she asks me why

i tell her
today in the playground
bullies
push me
punch me
kick me
shout at me
potato head!
raghead!
alladin!
even osama bin laden!
everything i know
i am not

i fight back
throw a fist

imagine the bullies as monsters
call them ugly things too
my cheeks burn
my heart thumps
i am MAD

i didn't start this
i am just one
and no one listens
when i yell
stop it!
leave me alone!
no one helps me
when the bullies
rip the cloth
from my head
pull off
my patka

not even the friends
i swing with
everyday on the monkey-bars
or the kids
who swap sandwiches with me
in the cafeteria
not even the adults
who patrol the playgrounds
to make sure
everyone follows the rules

after
bloody noses
bruises
scratches
the teachers sit us down

a peace negotiation
where no one questions
the bullies

why am i a target?

inside
i am like a match
like the ones my daddy warns me not to play with
a blue flame
which grows shorter every second
burning my insides
faster than i expect

i go home
and cry
and cry

i tell my mummy
everything

my mummy
wraps her arms
around my shoulders
tells me she loves me
with her eyes

she unwraps
my joora
lets loose
my long hair
runs her fingers through

mummy whispers
your hair
is like the night sky
your hair
is the universe

she combs my kes
with a kanga
twists my hair firm
on the top of my head
a galaxy you carry high
mummy says

she takes the square patka cloth
angles it
like a diamond
sets the patka on my scalp
and ties it tight
mummy tells me
this patka
crowns you

one day
you will wear a turban
cloth as long as the seven oceans
the full span of the earth
will rest on your head

be a brave young prince
like Sahibzaada Zorawar Singh Ji
like Sahibzaada Fateh Singh Ji
when bullies
big as kings
threaten them
for carrying the universe on their heads

like true princes
when bullies
torture them
with three nights
in the cold
in the dark

when everyone wanted them to just be children
they raised their chins high

no tears
just the ways of the lion prince

with questions and conversation
a duty for the kingdom

mummy kisses my cheeks
i kiss her back

i tell her
i will go back to school tomorrow
i will be like a prince
a shooting star

bright and brave
where ever it is cold
where ever it is dark

pk

ISRAEL - CRIMES AGAINST CHILDREN and WOMEN

My dear friends reading this blog, I apologise for presenting this distasteful, disgusting article. I do feel, however, the truth of this needs to be known. I know my usual proIsraeli readers will be angry at me. Well, they'll just have to be angry. This is the truth and it needs to be known. If any of you has evidence that this is not true, please send it to me and I will publish it.

I am breaking my own rule that every post needs a picture; the appropriate pictures would get me arrested for distributing child pornography.
From IHRO:

Strip-Searching Children

Humiliation and Child Abuse at Israeli Checkpoints

By ALISON WEIR

Israeli officials have been regularly strip-searching children for decades, some of them American citizens.

While organizations that focus on Israel-Palestine have long been aware that Israeli border officials regularly strip search men and women, If Americans Knew appears to be the first organization that has specifically investigated the policy of strip searching women. In the course of its investigation, If Americans Knew was astonished to learn that Israeli officials have also been strip searching young girls as young as seven and below.

According to interviews with women in the United States , Israel , the West Bank and Gaza , Israeli border officials periodically force Christian and Muslim females of all ages to remove their clothing and submit to searches.. In some cases the children are then "felt" by Israeli officials.

Sometimes mothers and children are strip-searched together, at other times little girls are taken from their parents and strip-searched alone. Women are required to remove sanitary napkins , sometimes with small daughters at their side. Sometimes women are strip searched in the presence of their young sons..

All report deep feelings of humiliation. Many describe weeping at the degradation they felt.

"I remember crying and pleading with my mother," Gaza journalist Laila El-Haddad recalls of an experience when she was 12-years-old, hoping that her mother could convince the Israeli official to allow her to keep her undershirt on. But parents are unable to shield their children, El-Haddad and others report.

"They had machine guns," El-Haddad explains. "We just had to submit." El-Haddad, who holds a Masters degree in Public Policy from Harvard's Kennedy School of Government, believes that the intention of the strip searches is to humiliate Palestinians so that they won't return to Palestine

Oregon attorney Hala Gores remembers being strip-searched at the age of 10. Her family, Palestinian Christians from Nazareth , were leaving Israel because of Israeli discrimination against Christians. Gores has never returned to her family's ancestral home in Nazareth, she says, in part because she does not want to repeat the experience of having no control over what is done to her.

The Israeli policy appears to target only Christian and Muslim children, and is equally applied to those with Israeli citizenship and citizenship in other countries, including native-born Americans. There are no reports of Jewish children being strip-searched.

New Jersey stand-up comedian Maysoon Zayid describes being strip-searched at Ben Gurion Airport when she was "seven, eight, nine years old" on family trips to visit her parents' original home in Palestine . On her most recent trip in July 2006, Maysoon, an American citizen, had her sanitary pad taken by officials in Ben Gurion Airport . When the search was completed, she says, the Israeli official in charge, Inbal Sharon, then refused to return her pad or allow her to get another.

Zayid, who has cerebral palsy and was sitting in a wheelchair, was then forced to bleed publicly for hours while she waited for her flight.

Zayid, a former class president and yearbook editor at New Jersey 's Cliffside Park High School known for her irreverent comedy routines and strong personality, describes sobbing uncontrollably. "No one spoke up," she remembers. "There were several women, including the woman who was pushing my wheelchair, none of whom said a word."

When she boarded her flight, Zayid recalls, "The flight attendants looked at me in disgust." She told them what had happened, and the attendants then gave her some of their own clothing to use.

In addition to taking her sanitary napkin, Israeli officials also confiscated medication that Zayid is required to take when flying. As a result, she vomited repeatedly throughout the 12-hour flight.

Zayid, who founded a program for newly disabled Palestinian youths ­ many of them permanently disabled from attacks by Israeli forces ­ was so depressed by her treatment that she determined never to return. "But that's what they want," she says, "They want us to get to the point where we don't go back." She says that she is already planning to return to her volunteer work in the West Bank ..

Israeli practices vary and seem to be applied randomly, from elderly women to small children. In some instances women are taken into a room alone and are left sitting naked for hours. At other times they are strip-searched in groups, their clothes thrown in a pile. When they are finally allowed to get dressed, they describe having to rummage through the heap of clothing, naked and barefoot, to find their own garments.

Jewish Holocaust Survivor

While these policies largely target Palestinian and Palestinian- American women and children, some non-Palestinian Americans also report being subjected to strip searches by Israeli officials.

St. Louis resident Hedy Epstein, whose parents and extended family perished in Nazi camps, and whose story is featured in the Academy Award winning documentary "Into the Arms of Strangers: Stories of the Kindertransport," reports being strip searched three years ago following her participation in nonviolent protests in the West Bank. Epstein, who was 79 at the time, describes being forced to bend over for an Israeli official to search her internally.

The strip searches appear to be illegal under numerous statutes. The Geneva Conventions, to which Israel is a signatory, prohibit: "Outrages upon personal dignity, in particular humiliating and degrading treatment" and specifically emphasize: "Women shall be especially protected against any attack on their honour"

Article 2 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child states: "No child shall be subjected to arbitrary or unlawful interference with his or her privacy"

In the US , such policies would appear to violate child abuse statutes. The state of Utah , for example, defines Child Abuse as: "Any form of cruelty to a child's physical, moral or mental well-being." The Encarta Encyclopedia defines child abuse as "Intentional acts that result in physical or emotional harm to children."

While the If Americans Knew investigation focused on practices concerning women, many interviewees reported frequent random strip-searching of males as well; including American citizens, children, and the elderly.

While the practice is widely applied, many people find it too humiliating to speak of. One 68-year-old Christian businessman, who had been stripped naked at Ben Gurion airport in 2006 before being allowed to board his flight to return home, had never revealed his experience to his family until he learned of the If Americans Knew investigation. He then explained to his daughter why he had previously told her that he might never return to his original home, now in the state of Israel ..

Christians, a thriving community that made up approximately 15 percent of Palestine 's population before Zionist immigration and the creation of Israel (Muslims were 80 percent and Jews 5 percent), have now dwindled under Israeli occupation to approximately two percent of the total population.

Israeli spokespeople and sympathizers have bristled in recent months at the title of a book by former President Jimmy Carter, "Palestine Peace Not Apartheid.." In reply, Carter has emphasized that the Israeli "apartheid" he is describing is limited to the West Bank and Gaza . Many analysts have disagreed with Carter, providing evidence of pervasive discrimination within Israel itself. The If Americans Knew finding that Israel has been routinely strip-searching non-Jewish citizens of Israel would also indicate a wider policy of Israeli discrimination.

Since American taxpayers give Israel over $8 million per day, the Council for the National Interest, a Washington DC-based lobbying organization, is organizing a campaign to call on Congress to demand that Israel end these policies.

"We are extremely upset to learn that Israel is using American tax money in ways that degrade and humiliate women and children," says CNI President Eugene Bird. "We call on all Americans to help us on this campaign."

The organization urges people to begin contacting their Congressional representatives immediately, and to disseminate the video report by If Americans Knew as widely as possible.

Alison Weir is executive director of If Americans Knew.
She can be reached at: alisonweir@yahoo.com

http://www.counterpunch.org/weir03152007.html

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WHY TRY TO FIT IN? YOU WERE BORN TO STAND OUT!

EGYPT COLLABORATING IN PERSECUTION OF GAZAN CHILDREN

For those of you who think I am too easy on Egypt, I offer you this sad and sickening story. What the hell is going on?

Aren't the Israeli bombs enough?

Gazan children denied treatment abroad

Children prevented from leaving through Egypt border as Palestinian Authority seeks to excise influence on Gaza.

By Jonathan Cook - JERUSALEM

For four days running, an ambulance has driven 15-year-old Amira Ghirim from Shifa Hospital in Gaza to the Rafah border in the hope that she will be allowed to cross into Egypt and then on to France, where she has been promised emergency surgery.

Amira’s left arm and thigh were crushed and her internal organs damaged by falling rubble when a shell hit her home in the Tel al Hawa neighbourhood of Gaza City in the final days of Israel’s offensive. The attack killed her father, brother and sister, leaving her an orphan.

But, despite her urgent need for surgery, Amira has been turned away at the border each time, said her aunt, Mona Ghirim. “Each morning we arrived at the crossing and the Egyptian soldiers cursed us and told us to go away.”

Ms Ghirim said Amira’s condition has been deteriorating because of the long periods out of hospital. Yesterday, after hearing news that the border would remain shut, they decided to abandon the journey. “She is very ill and these futile trips are not helping.”

Amira is one of four children who have been offered potentially life-saving surgery by a team of doctors in France. But she and the other children appear to be victims of a bureaucratic wrangle involving the Palestinian Authority, Hamas and Egypt.

Mohammed Salem, the head of a medical group based in France known as Pal Med, was among the doctors accompanying the children through the crossing last Friday. He said the doctors had been allowed through, but the ambulances carrying the children were blocked. When the doctors tried to return, they were denied entry into Gaza.

“We do not know why the children were refused,” he said. “We had organised all the relevant papers and documents. We were told once we passed through Rafah that the ambulance carrying the children would be allowed to follow.”

The reason appears to be a sudden change of policy by the Palestinian health ministry in Ramallah, which issued a statement the day before the four children tried to leave Gaza saying that it believed there was “no more reason to refer any more children for treatment abroad”.

Nearly 1,300 Palestinians were killed and a further 5,300 injured during Israel’s 22-day attack on Gaza.

In the days immediately after Israel’s declaration of a ceasefire on Jan 18, hundreds of seriously wounded Gazans were transferred through the Rafah crossing into Egypt. Many are being treated in Egyptian hospitals, and others have been sent abroad.

But in recent cases, Egyptian officials appear to have preferred to abide by the wishes of the Palestinian health ministry than create diplomatic friction.
Two of the four children, Hazem Abu Odeh, 12, and Iman Khadum, nine, need surgery to stop bleeding from their kidneys.

The fourth, Alla Abu Dagan, 16, suffered multiple fractures and abdominal wounds from a shell blast.

A diplomatic source, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Amira and the other children had probably been caught in a political row resulting from the split between the Fatah-controlled Palestinian Authority, based in the West Bank, and the Hamas government in Gaza.

“The PA wants to show it is exercising authority in Gaza, too. It is using its control over the international medical aid reaching Gaza as a way to show it is in charge and making things happen,” the source said.

The Palestinian health ministry was unavailable for comment.

Ms Ghirim said her niece had been through a terrible trauma. “After the house was shelled, she crawled out of the building to get help, but found the street deserted. She slept out in the open and told me she could hear the voices of soldiers speaking Hebrew all night.

“In the morning she crawled 500 metres to another house to hide. She stayed there until she was eventually found when the owner returned home. He said she was in a shocking condition, covered in blood and dust.”

International medical organisations have been carrying out their own assessments of conditions inside Gaza over the past few days. The World Health Organization is due to issue a report in the coming days.

A team of 12 Israeli Arab doctors from Physicians for Human Rights returned on Sunday. They warned that Gaza’s health care system had been stretched to its very limits and that wounded patients were at risk of dying.

Riyad Haddad, a surgeon at the Carmiel Medical Centre in Haifa, said: “There has been a lot of medical aid, but the treatment doctors are able to offer has been severely compromised by Gaza’s many months of being cut off from the rest of the world.”

He said technicians lacked training to operate modern hospital equipment, doctors had not attended medical seminars on the latest developments in their fields, and there was a severe shortage of trained nursing teams.

He also said that Gaza lacked the psychologists needed to deal with the vast scale of mental trauma inflicted on the population.

Of the thousands of injured, more than 600 would be left with permanent disabilities, he said. “Gaza badly needs proper rehabilitation centres to cope with that number of disabled.”

Dr Haddad said many of Gaza’s doctors he spoke with had reported unusual and difficult-to-treat injuries that appeared to be the result of Israel using experimental weapons during the offensive.

He also warned that unexploded ordnance was already claiming the lives of children, who were playing with munitions lying among the rubble. Last weekend the International Committee of the Red Cross said unexploded ordnance posed a “major new danger” to the civilian population.

Gaza may yet face major epidemics such as cholera that could claim many more lives, Dr Haddad said. “Although most of the bodies have been recovered from the rubble, you can see and smell that there are dead animals – sheep, goats, dogs and cats – everywhere.”

Jonathan Cook is a writer and journalist based in Nazareth, Israel. His latest book is “Disappearing Palestine: Israel's Experiments in Human Despair” (Zed Books). His website is www.jkcook.net. A version of this article originally appeared in The National.

IN THE NAME OF HUMANITY, STOP THIS!!

I CALL ON ISRAEL! I CALL ON EGYPT! I CALL ON ALL THE COUNTRIES OF THE WORLD TO PUT AN END TO THIS ATROCITY!

Frankly, I no longer care who is to blame. We are all responsible!

I have no time to write a good post today, so just look at the pictures. Then write your governmental representatives of your country to put an end to this murder of innocent children! If enough of us insist and don't quit insisting, they will listen. Do it now, this minute! How many will die horribly while you hesitate?

I have come under considerable fire for harping on this horror that is Gaza. No matter. I will continue harping until it is resolved or I am dead!

Courage And Hope - And Freedom, Sort Of - In Yemen

What to say about this? One very strong, brave little girl who - with the help of an aunty - stood up and said, "ENOUGH!"

You know I am sort of lobbying for the rights of very young girls. This story showed up today in the Los Angeles Times. No Anupreet today. Instead a very young woman, already married - and, thankfully, divorced - at age 10. Surely she can serve as an inspiration to all of us who sometimes feel that we have too much to overcome in life!

from The Los Angeles Times:

Yemeni 10-year-old divorcee Nujood Ali goes back to school

SANA, YEMEN -- Still groggy, the schoolgirl brushed her hair, struggled to pull on her socks and snuggled into her school uniform: a green gown and a white head scarf.

By the time she gathered up her books and strapped on her backpack she was smiling and enthusiastic, her nervousness eclipsed by anticipation of the first day of class.




Like children across the world, 10-year-old Nujood Ali went back to school this month after a lengthy break. But Nujood hadn't been lazing about or playing hide-and-seek with her friends during the summer.

Instead, after she was pulled out of the second grade by her father earlier this year, she was married off to a man three times her age, who beat her and sexually abused her.

For many girls in this traditional society, where tribal custom and conservative interpretations of Islam dominate, that would have been the end of the story. But Nujood was outraged. She gathered up her courage and on the advice of an aunt went to court in April. She got the help of a lawyer and filed for divorce.

A judge quickly granted it.

And on Tuesday morning, the divorcee, possibly the world's youngest, once again became a schoolgirl.

"I'm very happy to be going back to school," she said, waiting in her ramshackle home for her younger sister Haifa to get ready. "I'm going to study Arabic, the Koran, mathematics and drawing. I will do that with my classmates and I will definitely make friends there."

Nujood's unusual story of rebellion made her an international celebrity. Since The Times wrote of her in June, CNN, Elle magazine and other international media have come to this mountaintop capital to chronicle her tale.

Hordes of nonprofit organizations offered to help her get back to school, some even willing to foot the bill to send her abroad or to a fancy private academy, though they ignored Haifa, Nujood's little sister and best friend.

In the end, Nujood opted for a small, government-run public school relatively close to her home. She would begin where she left off, starting the second grade again.

Even then, it wasn't easy. One teacher said she worried that Nujood might disturb other students by talking about her sexual experiences.

The night before she went to school, Nujood said she dreamed of notebooks, drawings and new friends.

"When I left school, I learned how to count from one to 100," she said. "Now, I am going to learn how to count until a million."

Nujood said she wanted to study hard, to be able to attend university and become a lawyer like Shada Nasser, the well-known Yemeni human rights advocate who helped her get her divorce.

The girl's experience, and her ambition, have even served as an inspiration to her parents, uneducated rural people who moved to the capital's outskirts a few years ago and say they married her off to protect her from the dangers of the city.

"We were never asked if we wanted to go to school when we were children," said her father, Ali Mohammed Ahdal, who has two wives and 16 children.

"If we had a choice, we would have loved to study like Nujood."

On Tuesday morning, Nujood and Haifa climbed into a yellow taxi paid for by an Italian aid group and drove through the capital's smog-choked streets, passing vendors of the mildly narcotic khat leaves and the occasional shepherd.

Outside the schoolhouse, Nasser stood waiting, eager to share a day she had anticipated. "I can't believe we finally made it," said the attorney, who agreed to drop the rest of her caseload to take up Nujood's cause after the girl showed up alone in a Sana courthouse in April.

Nujood and Nasser were welcomed by Njala Matri, the principal of the school in Rawdha, a lower-middle-class neighborhood along the road to the city's international airport.

"You are welcome here. You can feel at home," she said, smiling at Nujood.

Only about half of Yemeni girls attend primary school. Last year, one of the school's 1,200 girls, a 13-year-old, dropped out to marry, though the legal age of consent is 15. "Now, she's a mother," Matri said in dismay.

Women's rights activists say child marriage is part of a vicious circle. Girls drop out of school and bear too many children, contributing to Yemen's high female illiteracy and exploding birth rate.

But on Tuesday, Nujood stepped through the school's gates into a vast courtyard, disappearing into a swarm of noisy classmates. Some paid her no mind, while others approached the girl who had become a local and international media star.

"I am so excited," she said, playing nervously with her hands.

A bell sounded and the students quieted down, forming lines for roll call before shuffling into classrooms of about 50 students each.

Nujood took a seat in the third row, neither at the front nor the back of the classroom.

The teacher, dressed in an all-covering black abaya, hushed the students and began the day's lesson by asking them to recite the national anthem as well as passages from the Koran.

Small hands shot into the air.

"Who can recite the Surat al-Hamd?" the teacher asked, referring to the first chapter of the Koran.

She saw Nujood's hand, and called her name.

"Nujood?" she said.

Nujood stood up and began, ending with: "Show us the straight path. The path of those whom You have favored. Not the path of those who earn Your anger nor of those who go astray."

"May God bless you," said the teacher.

"Let's give her a round of applause."

The others clapped as Nujood sat down, a little girl once again.

daragahi@latimes.com

Special correspondent Minoui reported from Sana and staff writer Daragahi from Beirut

*******************************************

Pictures by Delphine Munoui:

Nujood Ali, 10, stands near her home on the outskirts of Sana, Yemen. Her father gave Nujood's hand in marriage to a man three times her age.




Nujood Ali sits with her father, Ali Mohammed Ahdal, who is unemployed and has two wives and 16 children. Yemeni law sets the age of consent at 15. But tribal customs and interpretations of Islam often trump the law in this country of 23 million.




ONE THOUSAND CHEERS FOR THIS LADY!!Human rights lawyer Shada Nasser is representing Nujood Ali. Publicity surrounding the case prompted calls for tightened legislation, which conservative Yemeni lawmakers refused to take up.




Nujood Ali, left, sits in the living room of her modest home with her mother, Shuaieh. “All I want now is to finish my education,” Nujood said. “I want to be a lawyer.”






Ten-year-old Nujood Ali, left, waits for her sister to get ready for their first day of school. She was pulled out of classes earlier this year by her parents who married her off to a man three times her age.

Nujood, left, enjoys a day at an amusement park with her younger sister Haifa. After being married to a man aged 30 and suffering physical and sexual abuse, Nujood went to court to get a divorce, becoming a sensation in Yemen and abroad.

Nujood Ali, left, enjoys a break at a playground with her older sister Mona as she got ready to go back to school this week. Child marriage is common in Yemen, which suffers a vicious cycle of poverty, high female illiteracy, early marriage and booming population.

Nujood Ali, second row, right , sits with classmates during her first day back to school Tuesday. Many schools had refused her admission, fearing that she might share her experience of sexual abuse with fellow students. But the principal of a small government-run school in Sana welcomed her.

Children, Teach Your Parents Well...

Teach your parents well.

Their children's hell

Will slowly go by.

And feed them on your dreams,

The ones the pick,

They ones you'll know by.

Don't you ever ask them why,

If they told you, you would cry,

So just look at them and sigh,

And know they love you.

How many Sikhs around the world realise how our children are suffering, being bullied in schools in the States, especially in New Jersey and New York.

One young man had his kesh forcefully cut by a classmate, another had his patka set on fire. Another student in New York City, Jagmohan Singh Premi was feloniously assaulted by a younger classmate, who seriously injured his face and tried to pull off his patka. (Off-topic and impertinent: Why is an 18 year old young man, an adult, still wearing a patka?)

Now this young lady - and by her conduct she is a lady - has had her hair cut, unknown to her, while she innocently sat at her desk in school. Her brother has also been teased and mistreated at school. I salute these two especially, Gurprit Kaur and Talwinder Singh, as they have courageously come forward publicly with their names and photographs. They are setting a wonderful example for the rest of us to follow. When these incidents happen, we need to stand up proudly and proclaim 'I'm mad as hell and I'm not going to takes this any more!' And we need to stand together!

I am very glad that Gurprit Kaur Ji got her cut hairs back. She can treat them with the respect that they deserve. When my mother, in her insanity, cut my hairs when I was seven, every hair was preserved in a beautiful rosewood box, where it remains to this day, to be cremated with me eventually.

I can recall only one person who ever seriously harassed me, Billy the Bully. When none of the adults would handle the situation, I broke his arm. He never bothered me again. Of course, having seven older brothers helped, too. Nobody wanted to mess with The Magnificent Seven! Note: I do not recommend violence, but as Sikhs, we know that sometimes, when we have exhausted every other means, it may become necessary.

If you live or can get to the New York area for this march to support our children, please try to go!

Here is the story from the Sikh Coalition:

New York, New York) June 21, 2008 - The Sikh Coalition is dismayed to report that a twelve-year-old Sikh girl's hair was maliciously cut by another student. On June 9, Gurprit Kaur, a student at Public School 219 in Flushing, Queens, discovered that another student had cut off a portion of her braided hair and discarded it.

The attack on Gurprit occurred only five days after Jagmohan Singh Premi, was punched in the face when a student intentionally attempted to remove his patka (smaller turban) at Richmond Hill High School, in Richmond Hill, Queens. It also occured a just a year after Harpal Singh;s hair was forcibly cut by another student in a city school.

Sikh children simply continue to suffer in New York City. This past April, the Sikh Coalition released a civil rights report that found that more than 60% of the over 400 New York City Sikh public school students the Coalition surveyed suffered bias-based harassment or violence in city schools.

The Assault
On Monday, June 9, 2008 at approximately 11:00 am while in English class, Gurprit's classmate told her that a portion of her braided hair had been cut off. Gurprit did not notice while her hair was being cut behind her back. Given the deep spiritual significance of her hair, Gurprit was extremely upset. She immediately conveyed her dismay to teachers.

Gurprit's school conducted an investigation and within hours advised her that a classmate (a juvenile who shall remain nameless) had admitted to cutting her hair during a class they share together and where they sit next to each other. The school returned Gurprit's hair to her wadded in a tissue. The perpetrator was suspended the same day.

Sister and Brother Suffer Silently for Years
Sadly, the perpetrator specifically harassed Gurprit because of her and her brother, Talwinder because of their Sikh faith. The perpetrator made fun of Talwinder's jurdha and patka (smaller turban), saying "Your brother has a ball on his head. I am going to rip it off and throw it at him."

Once when Gurprit came to school with her hair in a bun, the perpetrator said, "Now you have a bun on your head just like your brother." The perpetrator also referred to Talwinder derisively as a "Hindu" in front of Gurprit.

The perpetrator knew that cutting hair was against Gurprit's religion. Several months ago, the perpetrator specifically asked Gurprit why she did not cut her hair. Gurprit responded because her religion does not allow it.

Gurprit's brother Talwinder, a sixth grade student, is routinely subject to ridicule because of his Sikh articles of faith. Other sixth-graders call him "potatohead" and "turbanator." Students would say that Talwinder has a bomb on his head, and to get away from him because he is going to blow everyone up.

The harassment Talwinder has suffered this year is nothing new. When Talwinder was in the fifth grade, a student tried to touch and remove his patka. When he was in the fourth grade, the school suspended a student for harassing Talwinder about his turban and hair.

When asked by the Coalition's staff whether he liked school, Talwinder responded, "I like school, but not the kids."

Enough is Enough: Sikhs of New York City to March for Sikh Children on June 30^th
The Sikh Coalition along with Gurprit Kaur and Jagmohan Singh Premi's parents are organizing a march through the streets of Richmond Hill, Queens on Monday, June 30^th. The march will end with a rally at Richmond Hill High School, the school where Jagmohan Singh Premi suffered a bias-based assault this month.

The purpose of the march is to push the New York Department of Education to end bias-based harassment of Sikh children in city schools. It is about time that the Department recognize that Sikh children in particular are vulnerable to bias-based harassment and violence in school. The Sikh Coalition calls on all Sikhs to march with us on Monday, June 30^th or sign the community petition to Schools Chancellor Joel Klein asking him to take action to protect Sikh children from bias-based harassment in city school.

Coalition Action and Department's Response
Sikh Coalition staff was on site at Gurprit Kaur's home and at her school within 24 hours of receiving a call from her father requesting assistance. School officials have since met with the Coalition to discuss diversity educational programs to be implemented at the beginning of the new school year in the Fall. The Department has not been clear on whether these programs will include specific education for teachers and students on Sikhs and Sikh concerns in school. The Coalition calls on the Department to implement a more Sikh-specific program since Sikh children are uniquely vulnerable to bias-based harassment.

In addition, the Sikh Coalition has formally requested that the Department share with the Coalition the Department's planned Chancellor's Regulation on addressing bias-based incident in city schools. The Department has agreed to meet with the Coalition before any such regulation is made public or implemented so that the Sikh Coalition can have input on its implementation Coalition a draft

As always, the Coalition continues encourages all Sikhs to fearlessly practice their faith and stand up for their rights. We ask that you sign our petition and attend our March for Sikh children.

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WHY TRY TO FIT IN?
YOU WERE BORN TO STAND OUT!